After the Fact
by Mitsuhiko2
Summary: Shinichi x Ran, AU series-ending, time travel. No DeLoreans. Beetles.
1. Chapter 1

**_After the Fact_**

_A time travel fanfic_

_Setting: Tokyo, shortly after the defeat of the Organization and Conan's return to Shinichi._

_Disclaimer: All the usual._

* * *

"Shinichi!" Agasa exclaimed, greatly excited.

Shinichi looked around Agasa's workshop. "What's up, Doc?" he asked in a weary voice.

It had been three months since Ran's death at the hands of the Organization. For a while, he'd been able to turn his anger towards a productive end—the end of the mysterious criminal syndicate. Now even that was gone. He was rapidly approaching the end of his rope.

Agasa, noticing the look on his face, was sober for a moment. But he couldn't keep his excitement in for long. "Shinichi, you'll never guess what I've developed!"

He shrugged, sighing. "The Elixir of Life?"

"Not quite," Agasa said triumphantly. "A time machine."

Shinichi didn't comprehend what Agasa had said at first. Then the words hit him like a lightning bolt. He stared at Agasa. "A _what_?"

"A time machine," Agasa repeated. "Here, let me show you. Grab that box." He was pleased that Shinichi seemed to be letting go, even if only for a moment.

Shinichi picked up the box that Agasa was pointing at. He nearly dropped it when it was far heavier than he'd expected. But he managed to keep his grip on it and followed Agasa out to the garage, where the front of his Beetle was popped open. The Professor chattered eagerly about his experiments and how this would certainly net him the Nobel prize.

Shinichi stood by silently as the Professor clanged around under the hood. He absorbed everything the Professor was saying, but responded to nothing. One thought kept going around in his head. "I could save her... I could save her..."

"There," Agasa said. He crawled out from the trunk and slammed it shut. "That should do it." He rubbed his dirty hands on a rag and only then noticed Shinichi in the driver's seat. "Oi, oi, Shinichi!" he exclaimed as Shinichi revved the engine.

"Sorry, Professor," Shinichi called. "I'll be back!" Tires squealed as the Beetle backed through the garage door and out into the street.

"But--" Agasa protested. "I didn't calibrate the temporal acquisition panel yet!" He hurried through the hole in his garage door and stared after the retreating Beetle.

Shinichi clutched the steering wheel firmly. _I'm coming, Ran_, he thought. _I let you down once, but it won't happen again._

A police car switched on its siren behind him. Shinichi glanced down at the speedometer and noted with surprise that he was nearly fifteen kilometers per hour over the speed limit.

Clenching his teeth, Shinichi punched in a sequence of numbers on the panel in front of him, recalling Agasa's impromptu lecture. He looked back. "Sorry, Yumi," he said, pressing the last button.

* * *

_Yeah, I'm back, kind of. No, this isn't the fanfic I thought I'd do next, but I changed my mind, OK? I wanted to do something with time travel. So here it is._

_Sorry, no DeLoreans. Reviews please! XD_

_Mitsuhiko2_

_P.S. Future chapters may be slow in coming. Be patient. ;)_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer:** You know the drill. It's Gosho's not mine._

* * *

For one awful moment Shinichi was sure that, like so many of Agasa's other inventions, the time machine wouldn't work. Then there was a blinding flash, the trunk popped open, and the windshield smashed in. Shinichi had a sickening sensation of rolling, then the airbag deployed. Everything settled down.

Shinichi carefully pushed the airbag out of the way and checked himself for injuries. Except a few scratches from glass fragments, he was remarkably intact.

Shinichi pushed open the door and crawled out. He looked in dismay at the Beetle, tipped up on its side. The trunk was wide open--the cover had been blown completely off and was nowhere to be seen. All in all, it looked terrible.

For a moment Shinichi wasn't sure if it had worked. He looked at his watch; that was no help, of course.

He scanned the area and realized, with a bit of surprise, that he was inside a large, mostly empty warehouse. There was no door, or hole in the wall, by which he should have been able to come through...

He frowned, wrinkling his forehead. The road he'd been driving on had never, as far as he knew, been part of a warehouse complex, so what...?

Suddenly he heard voices, and did what seemed to him to be the most appropriate thing. He dove for cover behind a pile of scrap metal that was lying along one wall.

Two men came into the warehouse, talking. Shinichi gripped one piece of steel rebar tightly as he recognized Vodka.

But if Vodka was here, then where was Gin? Shinichi instinctively looked behind himself, half expecting to be struck over the head with a length of steel pipe. There was nothing but a solid concrete wall.

He crouched further as they suddenly caught sight of the car. With an exclamation, Vodka abandoned his partner and hurried over.

While he was so distracted, the other man--evidently not a partner after all, as Shinichi had suspected--raised his right hand. Shinichi just made out the lines of a pocket pistol as a shot rang out.

The man went down in a heap, his undersized firearm clattering to the floor. Shinichi ducked as a third man, in a black trench coat and long, white hair, dropped from a loft above him. Apparently Gin hadn't noticed him.

Vodka had whirled around at the gunshot, his own weapon drawn.

"Too slow, Vodka," Gin chided. "He'd have killed you by now."

Vodka lowered his head. "I'm sorry, partner," he said in a low voice.

Gin frowned, looking over the car. "Where did this come from?"

Vodka shrugged helplessly. "Beats me, partner. It was here when I came in."

Shinichi sweatdropped as Gin scanned the room. Something clattered to the floor on the far side of the warehouse, and Gin immediately fired three shots in that direction. "I don't like this," he muttered. "Let's get out of here."

Vodka was only too happy to oblige, after frisking the man and taking a packet of papers from beneath his jacket.

Shinichi waited until they were gone, then sprang from his hiding place. He knew the Organization's typical modus operandi, and that was to burn the scene of the crime to the ground, leaving nothing behind.

Which meant he had to get the car out, and fast, if he was ever going to get back to his own timeline...

Too late. There was a rumbling thunder, and flames burst out of a small bank of restrooms on the far side of the warehouse. The wall began to lean in, and Shinichi panicked, looking for an exit.

"Here!" a voice called. An oddly familiar voice...

Haibara siezed his hand. "Come on," she urged, yanking until he followed her.

"Haibara? Where did you--" Shinichi began.

"Later," she snapped. "Let's get out of here. Now!" At that moment a rafter cracked, and a good-sized chunk of burning wood fell squarely on her foot. She let out a little shriek and collapsed.

Shinichi scooped her up and headed for the door at top speed. He dodged one more falling rafter and smashed through the burning door.

As he stood, panting, just outside the door, a look of horror crossed Haibara's face. "Run," she gasped. "The wall--"

Shinichi looked back in time to see the wall leaning ominously in his direction. He picked up Haibara again and started running again. This time, he didn't stop until they were safely out of the complex, in the shade of a tree in a nearby park.

"Now," he panted, "how did you get here?"

She gave him an odd look. "What do you mean? You told me to."

Shinichi stared at her as her words began to sink in.

"And another thing," she added, looking him up and down. "You promised that you wouldn't use the prototype until we finished this operation."

Shinichi's mouth dropped open. "I, uh--" Suddenly everything became clear, and he began to laugh. Softly at first, then harder, and finally he was crying, and it wasn't stopping. "It worked," he gasped finally. "I can't believe it..."

Haibara looked at him like he'd gone crazy. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

Shinichi straightened up. "Haibara," he snapped, "what's the date?"

She blinked. "The date?"

"Date and time," he said. Puzzled, she gave it to him, and he carefully set his watch.

"Great," he said. "Two weeks before... two weeks to prevent Ran's death."

"Kudo..." Haibara said slowly, "are you feeling all right?"

"Never felt better," Shinichi said happily. Suddenly he had purpose again.

Haibara looked doubtful, but then her detective badge beeped. "Haibara, report," Conan's voice came over the radio.

She gasped and stared at Shinichi. He looked confused for a moment. "Oh... of course. That would be the Conan from this time."

She pushed the stem on the badge. "One moment." Then she turned to Shinichi. "I think you'd better start explaining. Fast."


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer:** Yadda yadda yadda._

* * *

Shinichi sat down. "You'll never believe what I'm about to tell you."

"Kudo," Haibara said dryly, "if someone had told me I'd be in elementary school again two years ago, I wouldn't have believed them. Try me."

"Fine," Shinichi shrugged. "I'm from the future."

Haibara looked at him for a moment. "You're right," she admitted. "I don't."

"Agasa somehow came up with a time machine," Shinichi continued, oblivious. "I... borrowed... it and came back to save Ran."

"What do you mean, save Ran?" Haibara asked in concern.

"Well," Shinichi looked at his watch, "where--or when--I come from, Ran dies in thirteen days, eight hours, forty-six minutes. And ten seconds."

"And then, no doubt, you proceeded to make life miserable for everyone," Haibara said bluntly. "Just one thing, though--that car in there. Was that the time machine?"

"Yeah," Shinichi said, looking embarrased.

Haibara shook her head. "So can you prove that anything you've just said is true, then?"

Shinichi thought back. "Umm... Oh, wait, yeah. The Tokyo Giants beat the Osakans... tomorrow." He looked at his watch. "I forget the score." Staring at the watch, he suddenly slapped himself on the forehead. "Duh! Here. I've still got the same watch." He took it off his wrist and showed it to Haibara.

She took it and examined it carefully. "It looks the same," she said, "if a bit more beat up."

"Satisfied?" Shinichi asked smugly, taking the watch back.

"One more thing," Haibara said. "Who was Holmes' client in the KKK case?"

"John Openshaw," Shinichi replied without hesitation.

She nodded. "Fine, I'm satisfied. However..." she paused, thinking. "How far into the future are you from?"

"About three, three and a half months," Shinichi answered. "Why?"

She tapped one foot on the ground. "In order to minimize the potential damage to the timeline, I'm going to give you a set of strict guidelines," she ordered. "You deviate from them, and you risk Ran's life all over again."

Shinichi blinked. "I didn't know you were a temporal physicist," he said with only a hint of sarcasm.

She glared at him. "I've read a lot of sci-fi, OK? First, I'm going to need you to describe--" she was cut off again by the badge.

"Haibara, are you all right?" Conan asked, sounding worried.

"I'm fine," she answered. "I'm just making a couple side trips on the way home. I'll be fine." She clicked the badge off.

"As I was saying," she continued, "please describe the circumstances leading up to--the incident."

Shinichi looked down. "We--we had planned everything out," he said. "We were ready to move in on the Organization at any moment. The FBI, Interpol, the local cops were all ready to pounce. Then they kidnapped Ran on her way home from school. Witnesses said that she'd been dragged into a black foreign car without license plates. Gin called the Mouri Detective Agency and left a message, telling Kogoro that if he ever wanted to see Ran alive again he had to find a certain person for them--you, of course. If Mouri did not come up with the information in one week, Ran would be killed, and the rest of his family would follow shortly.

"Kogoro had no choice. He gave in and started searching for information. I did my best, trying to track down Ran and her abductors. In the mean time, you finished the antidote, and then took a prototype and left a note saying that you were going to try to save Ran. I followed you to them, but instead of letting Ran go they--" he choked up. "They shot her. Dumped her off the bridge"  
He shook his head. "They never recovered her body."

"Hmm," was all Haibara said. "I take it I survived?"

"Yes," Shinichi said. "The police swept in at that moment and arrested Gin and Vodka. The rest, it was only a matter of time, except..." he paused, looking off into space. "Vermouth, of course."

"She escaped." It wasn't a question.

"Of course."

Haibara sighed. "Well, from your rendition of events, I think a resurrection might not be impossible."

Shinichi looked at her. "That's why I'm here."

"However," she snapped, "if you go around interfering willy-nilly, you could end up changing the future and creating a paradox. And everyone I've ever read on the subject agrees that that's bad, though the consequences vary from simple eternal repetition to total destruction of the universe."

Shinichi looked at her blankly. "Whatever you just said."

"What I said was," she said bluntly, "get yourself a disguise and a pseudonym, check into Beika Hotel, and don't for any reason try to go solve a crime." She hesitated. "Like that's going to stop you. At least try not to reveal who actually solved the crime."

Shinichi nodded. "All right, Ms. Physicist," he agreed with a twinkle in his eye. "Say, where are we, anyway?" He lokoed around the oddly conspicuous green park, surrounded by bleak gray warehouses.

Haibara raised her eyebrows. "You don't know?"

"No," Shinichi scratched his head. "The time machine wasn't quite finished yet, and I think it moved me through space as well as time... but I'm not sure where."

"We're just inside the dock district," Haibara explained. "You'll need to catch a bus. I hope you have change?"

Shinichi searched his pockets. "Yeah, I think I have enough." He waved as they parted ways at the edge of the park. "I'll call you with the bowtie when I get a room."

She nodded. "All right, I guess. Just make sure it's me and not some prankster with a voice-changing bowtie." She glared at him.

"I wouldn't do that!" Shinichi protested.

His actual thoughts were more along the lines of, _Man, I wish _I'd_ thought of that..._

* * *

_If you're lucky, there'll be more up today. But you'll have to be really, really lucky. XD_

_Mitsuhiko2_

_--Spoiler--_

_No, Ran's not really dead... :-P_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Disclaimer:** This space intentionally left blank._

* * *

Agasa hummed thoughtfully as he scribbled on a large pad of paper. He tapped his mustache with his pen, then started writing again.

Suddenly, the phone rang, interrupting his ponderings. "Ah, hello?" he answered absently.

"Yes, is Ai-chan there?" a voice said. "This is her teacher, Kobayashi-sensei."

"Yes, just a moment," Agasa said. He set down the receiver. "Ai-kun!" he called. "Telephone!"

Ai came into the room. "Who is it?" she asked, taking the handset.

"It's Kobayashi-sensei," Agasa said, turning back to his paper.

Ai looked at the phone suspiciously. "Hello?" she answered.

"Ah, Ai-chan," the teacher said. "I just wanted to tell you that you failed that last science exam."

Ai blinked. "I what?"

There was a chuckle from the other end of the line. "Just kidding," said Shinichi in his normal voice.

"Don't scare me like that," she scolded, safely out of earshot of anyone else. "Did you find a place to stay?"

"Yeah," Shinichi answered. "Room 302, Beika Hotel. I registered as Zenigata Minoru."

"Good," Ai approved. "For now just try to stay out of trouble, I guess. Watch TV or something."

"No way," Shinichi responded immediately. "I can't just sit back and watch it happen all over again."

"You won't," Ai replied testily. "Don't worry, everything will be fine." She hung up.

"O-oi, Haibara!" Shinichi protested. He glared at the receiver and slammed it down. "Who does she think I am?" he muttered to himself.

* * *

The nondescript teenager, dressed inconspicuously in a jacket and baseball cap, wandered through downtown Tokyo.

_What am I doing here?_ Shinichi wondered to himself. He knew the answer. _Saving Ran_. But how?

Ran was kidnapped on her way home from school. They could try to intercept her then.

But, he pondered, thinking back to Haibara's lecture about paradoxes, then she'd have been saved, and he wouldn't be trying to come back to save her. That wouldn't work.

He shook his head. Then they'd have to save her in such a way that he wouldn't know she'd been saved. And so that the Organization wouldn't know she'd been saved. In short, they'd have to keep it secret from--pretty much everyone. Haibara, well, no one could really get much out of her in the first place. And she was discrete enough that she could easily be trusted.

In fact, he pondered, more so than himself, at times...

He shook his head and quickened his pace. There was no one who could snatch a person from beneath the very nose of the Organization.

_Or... was there_?

He couldn't believe he was thinking that. There was no way he'd try to enlist the help of that person.

No way. No...

He hesitated, slowed his step. Shinichi leaned against a light pole thoughtfully. _Was_ there anything he wouldn't do, for Ran?

He snarled. He didn't even know how to contact him. He kept walking.

"Kaito-kun!" someone hollered. He looked back to see a girl hurrying towards him... a girl who looked like Ran. He did a double take. No, it wasn't Ran... he turned and plunged back into his morose thoughts.

"Kaito!" the girl called again. She panted as she caught up. "Kaito, you..." she broke off as she looked closer. "Oh!" She turned pink. "I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else."

Shinichi nodded glumly. "Sometimes I wonder," he muttered to himself.

Just then he collided with someone walking the other direction. "Oh, excuse me," Shinichi said, startled. He looked at the person he'd run into.

And thought he was looking in a mirror.

He blinked. The other teenager did the same thing. For a moment Shinichi thought it _was_ a mirror, but then his doppelganger grinned. "Hey, aren't you Kudo Sh--"

Shinichi cut him off. "No, I--" Then, like lightning, the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place. "Aren't you--"

"Kuroba Kaito," he interrupted. "Nice to meet you." He shook hands vigorously. "Ah, Aoko! There you are!" he said, hurrying around Shinichi towards the girl who'd been chasing him earlier.

Shinichi stared after him. "Kuroba Kaito, huh?" he said to himself. "Pleased to meet you, too..."

* * *

Shinichi opened the desk in his hotel room. Taking out a telephone directory, he rustled through it. "Kuroba, Kuroba... hmm..." Nothing. Either he'd been given a pseudonym, or Kuroba-san's number wasn't listed. Tapping the desk thoughtfully, Shinichi realized that there was an internet terminal in the lobby downstairs. He hurried down.

"Kuroba Kaito, son of Kuroba Toichi, world-class magician," he read. "Toichi... wait, isn't that who--yeah, he taught Mom her makeup skills," he mumbled, perusing the archive he'd found. "Hmm. He died nine years ago in a stage accident... Nine years..." He quickly found a Kaito Kid fansite. "Nine years ago is when Kid dropped off the radar. You don't suppose..." He was on a roll now. "This is incredible." He hesitated. "And purely speculative."

Well, there was one way to confirm or deny the speculation. Shinichi closed out the web browser after looking up the Kurobas' current address. He headed through the glass double doors, striding purposefully towards the nearest bus stop.

* * *

_I don't know if they have internet terminals in hotel lobbies, but it's Japan, if anyone would they would. XD_

_At any rate, one more chapter down... who knows how many more to go... :D_

_Mitsuhiko2_

_P.S. Don't forget to review!! ;)_


	5. Chapter 5

Ran squinted as she saw someone--a child?--approaching them. To her horror, she recognized Ai-chan. /What is she doing out here?/ she thought frantically to herself. She was about to call out to Ai, and warn her, when she caught Gin's steely gaze on her. She didn't make a sound.

"I'm here," Ai said in a surprisingly adult voice. "Release Mouri-san."

Gin scowled at her. "Sherry... no wonder you were able to evade us for so long." A smile spread across his face--but there was nothing happy or cheerful about it. The smile was one of pure malice.

Vodka was staring, open-mouthed, at Ai as well. Neither of them noticed someone's head pop up cautiously behind Ran.

"Ran," the person whispered in an almost inaudible voice, "we're here to rescue you. Don't make a sound or everything will be lost."

Ran didn't move. That voice... could it be?

"On three," the voice continued, "I'm going to swing you over the railing to Kudo. It's imperative that you make no sound whatsoever. Do you understand?"

Ran nodded slightly to show that she did. She bit her lip, anticipating the maneuver.

"One... two... three!"

Her surroundings blurred as Ran found herself moving faster than she'd ever dreamed possible. She bit down, hard, forcing herself to not scream. She could feel blood flowing, but still she remained silent, keeping her eyes closed tightly. Then she was in freefall. She shut her eyes tighter still, not daring to look.

Suddenly her fall was arrested with a muttered oath. "You're heavier than I expected, Ran," Shinichi whispered humorously. "What were they feeding you?"

"Sh-Shin--" Ran started to say. Shinichi covered her mouth.

"They're still up there. Hang on." She held on for dear life as Shinichi inched his way up the rope to the bridge's supports. They clambered up between two of the huge steel beams and rested there, safely out of sight.

Meanwhile, Kaito had done his quick-change act and was now the spitting image of Ran, complete with the exact set of handcuffs she'd been wearing a moment before. Vodka looked back for a moment at the rush of wind, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"Let her go," Ai said, "and leave the others alone. They're not involved."

"Really, Sherry," Gin said condescendingly. "I'd have thought you knew me better by now."

She gasped, reaching out one hand as Gin swung his gun around, leveled it at Ran's face, and fired. Ran jerked back and toppled over the edge, seemingly in slow motion. Blood streamed from a gaping hole in her forehead, leaving a few spatters on the pavement, but mostly falling to the river below along with the body.

Ai stared at the blood, uncomprehending. "He failed... she's dead," she whispered to herself. "No... /we/ failed." She made no move to resist as Gin aimed his gun at her.

"Good-bye, Sherry," he sneered.

Shinichi looked up as something metallic clattered across the pavement, followed by a muffled curse. Spotlights suddenly switched on from both sides of the bridge, and several police helicopters thundered into the area, coupled with sirens from at least six different police cars.

"Come on," Shinichi said, crawling along the beam towards the far shore. "We need to get out of the country for a while. Go to America, England--anywhere but here."

"Can I recommend Australia?" Kaito asked, swinging under one support. "I hear a certain famous author is going to Sydney in a week or so."

Ran stared at him, bewildered by this sudden series of events. "What--who--are you?"

Kaito somehow managed a bow while walking backwards on one of the beams. "Kuroba Kaito, at your service, ma'am." He snapped his fingers, and a small flower appeared, which he handed to Ran ceremoniously.

"He played a major part in your rescue," Shinichi grunted, crawling with one leg on each beam. "In fact I'd say we couldn't have pulled this off without him."

"Remember your promise!" Kaito called cheerfully. "See you in Sydney!" He did a double backflip between the supports and vanished into the water below.

"Oh!" Ran cried.

"Don't worry," Shinichi muttered. "He'll survive. He always does."

They quickened their pace and managed to get to the other shore in about fifteen minutes. Shinichi helped Ran down and they hurried out from under the bridge. A taxi arrived shortly to pick them up.

--

"Where are we going?" Ran asked Shinichi curiously once they got out at the airport.

"Australia, of course," Shinichi answered.

"But I'm not packed!" she protested. Taking out her cell phone, she added, "And I need to call Mom and Dad, they'll be worried sick about me." She jumped as a hand closed over her cell phone and took it from her.

Shinichi snapped the cell phone closed and handed it back. "No."

Ran stared at him. "I can't even tell my parents that I'm alive?!"

"No," Shinichi said in a low voice. "It's imperative that you follow my instructions if you want to stay alive. Otherwise there's no guarantee that you won't have died back their on the bridge."

Ran looked at him in confusion. "Shinichi, you're not making sense."

"I know," Shinichi growled. "It doesn't make any sense to me either. But you've got to trust me. Listen, Ran. Last time, I /didn't/ save you, and you died on that bridge. Three months later, Agasa somehow came up with a time machine. I took it and came back in time to try one more time to save you, but if anything happens to reveal to the existing me that you're still alive, I won't come back to save you and there'll be a temporal paradox, which is bad." He floundered for a moment, trying to describe the situation. "So we have to go into hiding for three months--or at least leave the country, so we don't have to worry about accidentally creating a paradox. It's only three months, Ran. Then you can call them."

Ran turned away from him in confusion. Time travel? Paradoxes? It all sounded so ridiculous. Surely he could've come up with a better reason...

Then, she realized, of course he could have. He would have, too, if he just had some ulterior motive. There was no way Shinichi would try to feed her a story that preposterous just to keep her from calling home.

Assuming it /was/ Shinichi...

Sensing her indecision, Shinichi said, "Ran..."

That was all it took. She turned and, exercising admirable restraint, smiled. "All right. I trust you."

Shinichi's face broke into a grin. "So it's settled then?"

"Yes... but, Shinichi?" Ran questioned. "What will we do about clothes?"

Shinichi held up his dad's credit card.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Irresponsible..." she hesitated.

"I'd say this was an emergency if ever one existed," Shinichi pointed out. He moved over to the ticket counter. "Two one-way tickets to Australia."

"Are you eloping?" the ticket clerk asked mischeviously. There was something familiar about the twinkle in his eye... Shinichi hesitated.

"No," he said. He let the clerk swipe the credit card and then signed the required terminal. "See you in Sydney," he added, as they turned away.

"Who was that?" Ran asked, glancing back at the clerk who had now disappeared.

Shinichi smirked. "I have no idea." 


	6. Chapter 6

_Yay! Another update! XD_

_All the usual disclaimers..._

* * *

Upon boarding the plane, Shinichi's first thought was, I hope there won't be trouble on this trip.

His next thought was, Shoot, now I've jinxed it.

With those thoughts in mind, he settled down into his seat and looked out the window. He had a fantastic view of... a grey wall. Oh well, the wall wouldn't stay there for the whole trip. He rummaged through the complimentary magazines, looking for something interesting, but found nothing.

"Say, Shinichi," Ran mused. "Why couldn't we go directly back to the future, and avoid worrying about accidentally creating a paradox?"

Shinichi looked embarassed. "Uh, well, the time machine was on Agasa's car, and, well, I..."

Ran's eyes grew wide. "You didn't! Shinichi!" She swatted at him. "You destroyed Agasa-hakase's Beetle?"

"It was an accident," Shinichi protested, trying in vain to avoid the stares from neighboring passengers. "Try to keep it down. Publicity is the last thing we need right now."

Ran nodded soberly and settled down.

"Say, Shinichi," she mused after a while. "What would have happened if you had leaked it to the... other Shinichi?"

Shinichi groaned. "I've been trying to puzzle that out for the past week," he growled. "I've gotten nowhere."

"Oh," Ran said.

Shinichi settled back in his seat. "Wake me up when we get to Australia." He closed his eyes and was soon asleep.

Ran smiled at him. "You're like a big kid, Shinichi," she said to herself softly.

Ran wasn't sure how much later it was, but someone shrieked, and there was a general chorus of gasps and screams as a man stumbled from the corridor leading to the cockpit and collapsed on the floor. Shinichi's eyes snapped open and he sat up straight. "I knew it," he groaned to himself, sliding past Ran into the aisle and hurrying to the unconscious man. "Drat! Too late." He looked up at the nervous attendant. "Help me move him behind the curtain, away from the passengers."

"Y-yes, of course," she stammered, not moving.

"Take his legs," Shinichi ordered, moving to pick up the top half of the unconscious man.

She nervously helped Shinichi half-drag, half-carry the man behind the curtain. "Is it bad?" she asked, chewing a fingernail as Shinichi laid him out.

"Yes," Shinichi said curtly. "He's out like a light." He turned to the attendant. "This man is--"

"The pilot," she said. "The copilot is--"

Shinichi opened the cockpit door. The attendant jumped back in horror; the copilot was writhing on the floor. As they looked, the plane started to go into a dive.

"Deja vu," Shinichi growled, hauling the copilot out into the corridor. He dove for the controls and managed to level out the plane again. "Autopilot's been disengaged. Do you know where we are?" He squinted through the window and saw nothing but clouds.

"The captain said that we had just come over land a few minutes ago," the attendant said, losing some of her nervousness. "We're about an hour from Sydney. What are you--"

Shinichi punched the intercom. "Passengers, this is the captain speaking," he said. "There has been a medical emergency. If there is a doctor on board, please report to your nearest flight attendant. Please do not panic, everything is under control."

He clicked it off. He scanned the instrument panel and switched to the emergency channel. "Japan Air 203 to anyone in range, the pilot and copilot are incapacitated. Please advise."

The radio crackled. "Japan Air 203, this is Sydney ATC. Is autopilot still engaged?"

"Negative," Shinichi answered calmly. "I'm flying manually."

At that moment the door opened again and someone else entered. Shinichi looked up to see Ran. "Uh, Ran, I..."

She sat down in the copilot's seat. "I've done this before."

"Yes, with help!" Shinichi protested.

"Aren't you here?" she asked.

He was taken aback. "Japan Air 203, what is your current heading and altitude?" the radio demanded.

Startled, he quickly checked his instruments and read them off. "The navigation console seems to be targeting the Sydney airport," he informed the tower, "so I was following that."

"Good, keep doing that," the tower responded. "Have you ever been in a situation like this before?"

Shinichi hesitated and glanced at Ran. "Yes, kind of," he answered finally.

"Well, we'll have some experienced pilots here to help," the traffic controller responded. "Stand by."

Elsewhere in the plane, Kaito glanced up lazily from the magazine he was reading and smiled. Shinichi had the situation completely under control. He turned back to his magazine.

With the other pilots' guidance and the assistance of the copilot, who a doctor had managed to revive, Flight 203 was able to make a safe landing at Sydney. Both men were rushed to the hospital; it turned out that the pilot's meal had been of less than optimal quality and he and the copilot were suffering from nothing more than acute food poisoning.

Shinichi shook his head. "That's the first time I can remember," he said, "that such an act in my immediate vicinity was not predicated by someone with hostile intentions."

"You think it /was/ attempted murder?" Ran asked, worried.

"No," Shinichi said calmly. "It was an accident. But maybe that's a good thing." He started walking towards airport security.

"What do you mean?" Ran asked, hurrying to catch up with him.

"Have you ever noticed," Shinichi said, "that whenever I go somewhere, a crime almost invariably occurs?"

Ran thought back. "Now that you mention it... Yeah, I guess so." She smiled. "But that happened with Dad, too."

Shinichi started to say something but changed his mind. "Uh, yeah."

"Though," Ran said thoughtfully, "actually, it only started happening after..." Her voice trailed away.

Shinichi cringed, knowing full well the next question. "Who is Conan? Really?" The look Ran gave him indicated that she had a pretty good idea, and most likely the bathing incident was not the furthest from her mind.

"Ah, well," Shinichi said nervously, edging away slightly, "the fact is--he's--"

"Shin-chan!" a voice interrupted him. Shinichi never realized how welcome that voice could be.

"Oh, hi," he said. "Mom, Dad, we need to talk for a minute."

"But what are you doing Down Under?" his mom asked curiously. She looked at Ran. "Is Kogoro here too?"

"Ah, no, that's what we need to talk about," Shinichi tried to explain. "And it's going to take a little while to explain, so maybe we could find a table?"

Ran's mind was, for the moment, taken off of Edogawa Conan. Shinichi could only hope he'd have a chance to break it to her in a safe environment...

* * *

_Next-to-last chapter... ;)_


	7. Chapter 7

_The last chapter. Don't forget to review!_

* * *

Yukiko just blinked. Twice.

Yuusaku leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. No one spoke for a moment.

"I believe you," Yuusaku said suddenly. "And in your situation I think I'd have done the same."

"Why, thank you, dear," Yukiko said, poking him.

"However," Yuusaku continued unperturbed, "I'm not sure how her parents will take the matter."

"They'll be mad," Ran stated.

"I was afraid of that," Shinichi muttered. "Well, I guess it's better that you're alive and missing for three months than dead permanently."

Ran nodded in agreement. "Maybe we could have Conan break it to them," she suggested subtly.

Shinichi and his parents flashed a look between them. "Hmmph," Shinichi snorted after a moment. "Since when has he ever been on Kogoro's good side?" He stood up. "I'll be right back." He bent over and whispered something in Yuusaku's ear before hurrying to the restrooms.

Yuusaku chuckled. "Poor kid."

Ran looked at him quizzically.

Yukiko had caught enough of Shinichi's whispered remark to reconstruct the rest. She grinned. "I think he's afraid of you."

"Afraid?" Ran said, looking at her curiously. "Why?"

Yukiko glanced over at Yuusaku mischeviously. "Oh, probably because of the incident in the hot springs," she said, looking away innocently.

Ran set her elbows down on the table. "He should be!" she snapped. "The pervert."

"Whose idea was it?" Yukiko asked.

Ran blinked. "O-oh, I think it was... mine, I guess. But he could've said something!" she protested.

"No he couldn't," Yuusaku said calmly. "The organization he was trying to unseat was amazingly well-organized. The slightest slip and he'd have been caught, most likely dragging down those around him too." He took a sip of his drink. "It was for your protection as much as his, Ran-chan."

Ran looked down. "I wouldn't have--I could've kept his secret," she said in a low voice.

"Could you?" Yuusaku asked in a fatherly tone. There was nothing harsh or contradictory about the statement.

"I-I don't know," Ran said. "You're right, I guess."

"It was probably as hard on him as it was on you," Yukiko added. "Living right there and not being able to tell you--and believe me, there were times he tried desperately."

Ran was silent. "What about Ai-chan?" she asked finally. "Is she--"

"You should ask her," Shinichi said, sliding into his seat again. "In about three months."

Ran nodded. "Uh, Shinichi?"

Shinichi looked over at her hopefully. "Yeah?"

"I forgive you."

Shinichi's eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Yeah... after /this/!" Ran slammed Shinichi clean across the walkway into the wall. He coughed, clutching his stomach.

"You didn't have to hit that hard," he gasped, sitting back down--on the edge of his seat furthest from Ran.

"Hmmph," she said loftily, turning back to her drink.

Yuusaku and Yukiko exchanged a knowing glance. "Coincidentally," Yuusaku said, "our travel plans will be bringing us back home to Japan in about three months. Care to join us?"

Shinichi shrugged. "I suppose," he said. He glanced over at Ran. "Though I'm going to have to catch up on the year or so of high school that I missed."

"Look on the bright side," Ran said with a mischevious twinkle. "You have a stronger foundation in the basics now."

Shinichi rolled his eyes. "Thanks," he said snidely. "I was getting straight A's /without/ that."

They laughed merrily. A waiter came up to them at that moment and asked if they were ready to order. They quickly looked over the menus and found something to eat.

When the waiter returned, he handed out the food, and finished with, "And everyone lives happily ever after." He winked at Shinichi and vanished.

Yuusaku looked after him curiously. "Who was that, I wonder?"

Shinichi grinned. "I wonder." He dug into his food and refused to say more.

Three months later, a plane touched down at the Tokyo airport. A party of four people stepped out. They could have been mistaken for a father, mother, son, and daughter. They made their way through security and split up at the entrance.

Shinichi and Ran caught a bus to Beika City. Shinichi checked his watch. "Come on," he said, hopping off a few blocks away from their destination. "We're a couple minutes early. Let's walk."

Ran stretched and looked around. "It's so wonderful to be back home."

"Yeah," Shinichi agreed.

They were nearing Beika Street when a familiar yellow Beetle screeched around a corner right in front of a police car. Shinichi stepped in front of Ran, just in case. He felt odd watching himself flying down the road.

"Was that--" Ran began.

"Me," Shinichi admitted with some embarassment. "But watch." The Beetle was nearing a stoplight. Instead of slowing down, it suddenly started to spark and flash, and then there was a brilliant flare and it was gone.

"Whoa," Ran said, staring at the spot where the car had been. "You mean it just traveled backwards through time?"

"Yeah," Shinichi said, grinning. "Come on, we've got to get to the Professor's house. He's going to be worried."

As they rounded the corner, they could see Agasa standing in the street, staring past them and wiping his hands on a rag. When he saw Shinichi and Ran approaching, he did a double take, then hurried forwards. "Sh-Shinichi?! R-Ran-kun! You're alive!"

"Agasa-hakase!" Shinichi hollered in elation. "You're a genius, professor!" They ran towards each other and group hugged.

At that moment Ai raced out of the garage. "Professor!" she hollered. "He's gone?" She slowed in disbelief as she recognized Ran. "What--how--I saw--"

Shinichi looked at Ai. "Now this is really going to confuse me," he said, "but what do you remember?"

She looked at him narrowly. "You just went back in time to try to save Ran," she said. "About three months ago, to be exact. Then you ran into me, and I tried to help you save her, but then I lost contact with you and we failed. I was going to give this to you," she said, holding up an envelope, "because it would have given you what you needed to carry it out, but..." she shook her head. "Clearly I'm missing something here."

Shinichi smirked. "I had a friend of mine help," he said. "We swapped Ran for him, in disguise, right out from under their nose--and yours, I might add. He of course survived, but left the impression that Ran did not, thus preserving the timeline from paradoxes--including unintentional ones."

Ai shoved her hands in her pockets. "Thank you for your vote of confidence. Who was it again who nearly--" she hesitated and glanced at Ran.

"She knows," Shinichi told Ai. "But her parents don't--or that she's even alive, for that matter." He sighed heavily. "I'm trying to figure out how to tell them without getting my head chewed off."

Ai laughed. "Leave it to me," she assured Shinichi.

"You sure?" he asked skeptically. Ran didn't look too confident either.

"Of course," she said, waving it off. "Come on."

Ran and Shinichi exchanged a worried glance, but followed the apparently young primary school student.

"Mouri-san," Ai said, "how's it going?"

Kogoro grunted. "Eri's still mad at me, I have no one to clean the house, AND Yoko cancelled her last show. Go figure."

Ran clenched her fists. Shinichi wisely stepped out of her way. "Hiii-yaah!" she hollered, smashing down the door. "I heard that! Is that all I am to you, a housemaid?" she stormed at a stunned Kogoro. "If that's the case, you can just forget about--"

"R-Ran," Kogoro stammered. "Y-you're alive?" He stared at her in shock, then suddenly burst into tears. Ran looked on awkwardly, relaxing to a less hostile position, as Kogoro proceeded to vent his odd mix of feelings.

Shinichi glanced down the steps as the door opened and someone started up. "Shh!" he said, one finger over his lips as he recognized Eri. "Tender moment ensuing."

Eri blinked and peeked carefully into the office. Shinichi wasn't sure which startled her more, Kogoro crying or Ran alive. At any rate, she burst into the room crying "Ran!". The two women dove into each others' arms. Kogoro, realizing abruptly that he was making a scene, cut off his insane sobbing and quickly dried his eyes.

"Ran! Where have you been?" he asked her sternly. "We thought you were dead! Even that Shinichi brat you're so fond of."

"Eh--Shinichi?" Ran said suddenly, remembering.

"Don't tell me you forgot about him," Eri exclaimed.

"Ah, no, but--" she hesitated. "It--it's kind of a long story."

"Long and wildly improbable," Shinichi added, stepping discretely into the room. "I'd understand if you didn't believe it, or if you tried to kill me if you did believe it."

"That's not a very promising start," Kogoro growled. "Get it out."

Shinichi shrugged and calmly narrated the sequence of events, stumbling occasionally on the issues of time travel, and minimizing the three months they'd spent under the radar.

It didn't do any good. "So where have you been the past three months?" Eri asked angrily.

"Travelling with Shinichi's parents," Ran said, "trying to avoid a paradox."

"PARADOX BE &#!" Kogoro exploded. "This is my DAUGHTER you're talking about!"

"Precisely," Shinichi said coldly. "And if I hadn't taken the measures I did your daughter would be dead. Permanently."

His words stopped Kogoro in his tracks. "True," he admitted grudgingly.

Eri seemed to have a better grasp on the situation. "I guess we should be thanking you, then," she said to Shinichi.

Shinichi nodded slightly. "It wasn't a problem."

She smiled. "But," she whispered, leaning in close, "you're kind of getting in the way of an intimate family reunion."

"Oh!" Shinichi jumped. "Of course, I'll be going now..." he hurried out. Ai was waiting for him in the hallway. They headed over to Agasa's house together.

"That didn't quite go according to plan," Ai admitted.

"Talk about it," Shinichi grumbled. "I told you I'd get my head chewed off. I've been living with the guy for nearly a year now."

Ai shrugged. "Sorry. I tried."

Shinichi grinned. "I know," he said. "But anyway, I think everything's getting back to normal."

"Not quite everything," Haibara said.

"Oh?" Shinichi asked, looking at her.

"You still owe the Professor a Beetle."

* * *

_Yay! It's done! Review, review, review... XD_

_Mitsuhiko2_


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